And you, are you used to procrastination? A studypublished by researchers from INSERM, CNRS and AP-HP, within the Brain Institute (ICM) in Paris, in the journal NatureCommunications in September 2022, identified a region of the brain involved in procrastination: the anterior cingulate cortexWho “calculates for each of our actions the ratio between cost and benefit“, specifies Dr. Raphaël Le Bouc, neurologist and first author.
In procrastinators, it activates more strongly when they choose to postpone a task: the associated effort seems less painful to them if it is postponed in time. And the more distant the prospect of satisfaction to be derived from this task, the less stimulating it appears. “Procrastination thus seems to be explained specifically by the brain’s tendency to count costs more quickly than rewards.“
A total of 51 participants were subjected to a battery of tests, during which their brain activity was recorded by MRI. The researchers first asked them to give a subjective score to various rewards (flowers, object, meal), then to efforts (memorizing a sequence of numbers, stringing together a series of calculations or physical exercises). “To quantify how much the reward or effort signal wanes when pushed into the future“, they then had to say if they preferred to receive a small reward immediately, or a larger one later. Then, for the same exercise, if they preferred to do it immediately or in a week.
MRI shows that this decision activates the famous brain area. “All of this data was used to feed a computational model predicting the tendency to procrastinate.“, says Dr. Le Bouc. The volunteers were then subjected to two types of tests to measure their procrastination. In the first, they had to choose: to do one of the exercises against immediate reward, or to postpone one and the other to the the next day. For the second, they left with a dozen tedious administrative forms, to be completed and returned within a month for compensation. The computational model proved capable of predicting both the tendency to procrastinate in laboratory tests and the time each participant took to return the forms.
Why is this study important?
We knew that the attractiveness of a reward and the difficulty of a task influence the tendency to procrastinate. This study adds a stone to the building, by demonstrating that for the same effort and the same reward, certain individuals have a different cerebral functioning, and are more sensitive to the delay of the tasks which require an effort.
“We knew that the reward value decreases over time and that the effort seems less if it is deferred. The strength of this study is to make the link between the two. As the researchers point out, better understanding the brain process involved can provide the key to behavioral modulation strategies to help procrastinators caught in a vicious circle. So that they do not feel that the effort required is such a huge challenge that they prefer to postpone it, they must be encouraged to start and finish tasks in small steps: by setting micro objectives, short term. Each validated step then leads to motivation for success“, indicates Marie Lacroix, doctor in neuroscience questioned by Top Health.
Sources:
- A neuro-computational account of procrastination behavior, NatureCommunicationsSeptember 26, 2022
- Inside the brains of procrastinatorsCNRS, October 11, 2022
